Contracts & Negotiation

Your contract should make the results of the negotiation legally enforceable.  Cross-border contracts present special challenges. Not just differences in language, but contracting cultures, the rules of interpretation by the courts, drafting techniques, substantive law and the choices regarding substantive law and forum differ internationally as well.

I have been working with contracts at the interface of different languages and legal systems since 1995. Between 2007 and 2010, I taught a course on international contract drafting at the University in Heidelberg.

As a disputes lawyer, I can foresee how the contract partner, now opponent, will interpret passages.  As a transaction attorney, I am also familiar with the dynamics of negotiations.  Sometimes clarity must be reached by various paths.

International contracts I have worked on include, inter alia,

• M&A documentation
• Share purchase agreements
• Asset sale agreements
• Joint Ventures
• Joint Venture dissolutions
• Licenses
• R&D agreements
• Distribution agreements
• Marketing agreements
• Sales agreements
• Construction agreements
• Leases
• Settlement agreements